XIX. 

 "THINGS UNRECK'D OF." 



"You have told us of little specks called 

 eyes in some of our moUusca, but, Cousin Ellen, 

 can these little animals really see and hear and 

 do they ever speak to each other ? " asked 

 Undine. 



" Some of them at least have organs of 

 sight," answered Miss Bremely, " and eyes 

 which have been considered rudimentary may 

 simply be so because our own are not delicate 

 enough to study them sufficiently. 



"The eyes of the common snail are upon 

 long stalks which are raised or lowered, turned 

 this way and that as the animal travels, giving 

 it quite the air of an interested observer. 

 These eyes are very exposed upon their raised 

 tentacles, and Nature has provided a very curi- 

 ous device for keeping them from injury — 

 which is only another way of saying that the 

 kind Creator has a care for even the eyes of a 

 little snail. The point of these long stalks 



163 



